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Fee triggers gun owners' discontent
By John E. Mitchell
North Adams Transcript
Local gun owners are fired up over state fee increases for gun and ammo permits and Firearm Identification Cards. With each now at $100 apiece -- quadruple the previous amount, store owners are sure that business cannot help but be affected by the fee hikes, and gun enthusiasts are fairly certain that the government's plans won't work as smoothly as it thinks.
"It's too short term to determine yet how it's going to affect business," said Dave Benham, owner of Dave's Sporting Goods in Pittsfield. "Obviously it's not going to help business any because it's a pretty drastic fee increase."
"It's going to cause another drop in gun shop sales," said Pete Decker, owner of Decker's Cleaners and Gun Shop in Adams. "We can't even sell a .22 bullet to someone who doesn't have an F.I.D. card to show us, let alone sell him a gun."
Both Benham and Decker report that most gun owners would have accepted a higher fee of anywhere from $35 to $50, but the dramatic increase has them suspicious of the reasoning behind the $100 amount.
"It's a gun control measure rather than a fee-raising measure," said Decker.
Sgt. Rick Tarsa of the Adams Police Department said that complaints have spilled over into his dealings with gun owners renewing their permits.
"There have been people that have come in for applications saying they want to renew it," said Tarsa. "And when we inform them of the new law, they've voiced their displeasure with it. But it has nothing to do with us, we're basically just the state's messenger that the fee went up."
The big concern about the fee is that such a drastic hike will convince some gun owners not to renew their license. Tarsa isn't so sure this is a legitimate fear.
"I've had people jokingly say 'Well, I'm not gonna' get it!'" said Tarsa. "But I know for a fact they are. I haven't encountered anyone personally yet that said 'Forget about it, I'll take my chances.'"
Decker gets a different sense from his customers.
"I've got one standing here right now," said Decker. "He's already told me, 'I'm not going to renew mine.' We have a lot of those. They're going to turn a lot of people into criminals."
Decker is reminded of the situation when hunting and fishing licenses were raised.
"I was talking to someone at the headquarters of Fish and Game in Boston," said Decker. "And he asked me, 'How are your license sales?' and I said that they're down. 'Oh, geez, you mean people aren't hunting?' I said, 'Oh, no, I didn't say that. I said the license sales are down. People are still hunting -- without a license.'"
Decker believes that the number of gun owners who will not pay the inflated fee will offset the amount of money that the state is expecting to take in because of it, especially when new gun sales are added to the picture.
"I would think that that could be a deterring factor for someone that does not own a gun now who may have been thinking of obtaining a permit and buying a gun," said Benham.
Gun owners are not the only people affected by the sweeping rises in fees. For instance, boat and ATV registrations are up, the cost of probating a will has now gone up, and even blind people have found themselves paying larger fees for certificates of blindness and photo IDs for the legally blind. One of the most controversial is that of mace, which, thanks to the required license, now costs $100.
"I'm sure in their infinite wisdom they will turn around sometime in the future," said Decker. "Maybe two, three, four years down the road they'll say, 'Well, we shouldn't do this for the mace license, maybe we'll make that one back to what it's supposed to be.' By then they will have gotten an awful lot of money for it from an awful lot of people."
In the end, Decker, and many people like him, see this as one more conflict between the eastern half and western half of the state.
"You'll never convince the people in Boston," said Decker. "That's a different world down there. Maybe we should secede. I'm not kidding. Maybe we should secede from the Connecticut River on west. Just quit Massachusetts and make our own state. We wouldn't have to pay for the Big Dig anymore, would we?"
By John E. Mitchell
North Adams Transcript
Local gun owners are fired up over state fee increases for gun and ammo permits and Firearm Identification Cards. With each now at $100 apiece -- quadruple the previous amount, store owners are sure that business cannot help but be affected by the fee hikes, and gun enthusiasts are fairly certain that the government's plans won't work as smoothly as it thinks.
"It's too short term to determine yet how it's going to affect business," said Dave Benham, owner of Dave's Sporting Goods in Pittsfield. "Obviously it's not going to help business any because it's a pretty drastic fee increase."
"It's going to cause another drop in gun shop sales," said Pete Decker, owner of Decker's Cleaners and Gun Shop in Adams. "We can't even sell a .22 bullet to someone who doesn't have an F.I.D. card to show us, let alone sell him a gun."
Both Benham and Decker report that most gun owners would have accepted a higher fee of anywhere from $35 to $50, but the dramatic increase has them suspicious of the reasoning behind the $100 amount.
"It's a gun control measure rather than a fee-raising measure," said Decker.
Sgt. Rick Tarsa of the Adams Police Department said that complaints have spilled over into his dealings with gun owners renewing their permits.
"There have been people that have come in for applications saying they want to renew it," said Tarsa. "And when we inform them of the new law, they've voiced their displeasure with it. But it has nothing to do with us, we're basically just the state's messenger that the fee went up."
The big concern about the fee is that such a drastic hike will convince some gun owners not to renew their license. Tarsa isn't so sure this is a legitimate fear.
"I've had people jokingly say 'Well, I'm not gonna' get it!'" said Tarsa. "But I know for a fact they are. I haven't encountered anyone personally yet that said 'Forget about it, I'll take my chances.'"
Decker gets a different sense from his customers.
"I've got one standing here right now," said Decker. "He's already told me, 'I'm not going to renew mine.' We have a lot of those. They're going to turn a lot of people into criminals."
Decker is reminded of the situation when hunting and fishing licenses were raised.
"I was talking to someone at the headquarters of Fish and Game in Boston," said Decker. "And he asked me, 'How are your license sales?' and I said that they're down. 'Oh, geez, you mean people aren't hunting?' I said, 'Oh, no, I didn't say that. I said the license sales are down. People are still hunting -- without a license.'"
Decker believes that the number of gun owners who will not pay the inflated fee will offset the amount of money that the state is expecting to take in because of it, especially when new gun sales are added to the picture.
"I would think that that could be a deterring factor for someone that does not own a gun now who may have been thinking of obtaining a permit and buying a gun," said Benham.
Gun owners are not the only people affected by the sweeping rises in fees. For instance, boat and ATV registrations are up, the cost of probating a will has now gone up, and even blind people have found themselves paying larger fees for certificates of blindness and photo IDs for the legally blind. One of the most controversial is that of mace, which, thanks to the required license, now costs $100.
"I'm sure in their infinite wisdom they will turn around sometime in the future," said Decker. "Maybe two, three, four years down the road they'll say, 'Well, we shouldn't do this for the mace license, maybe we'll make that one back to what it's supposed to be.' By then they will have gotten an awful lot of money for it from an awful lot of people."
In the end, Decker, and many people like him, see this as one more conflict between the eastern half and western half of the state.
"You'll never convince the people in Boston," said Decker. "That's a different world down there. Maybe we should secede. I'm not kidding. Maybe we should secede from the Connecticut River on west. Just quit Massachusetts and make our own state. We wouldn't have to pay for the Big Dig anymore, would we?"